Katskhi Pillar is a natural and spiritual wonder in western Georgia. The approximately 130-feet-tall limestone monolith is the site of a church dedicated to Maximus the Confessor, a crypt, a curtain wall, a wine cellar, and three hermit cells—while a monastery and chapel sit at the base. Monks began living in a church atop the pillar in the 10th or 11th century, but stopped in the 15th century during the Ottoman invasion. In 1944, a group of writers, an architect, and an alpinist climbed the pillar and discovered the remains of a chapel and a stylite. The pillar was occupied again from the 1990s until 2015. Today, only members of the religious order are permitted to climb the iron ladder to the top.
